DAViCal is a free and open-source calendar and address book server that allows you to synchronize your contacts and events across different devices. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing DAViCal on the latest version of Elementary OS.
Before we begin, make sure you have the following prerequisites:
Before installing any new software, it is always best to update your system to ensure you have the latest packages installed. You can update your system by running the following command in your terminal:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
DAViCal requires a web server to function, and Apache is the most commonly used web server. To install Apache, run the following command in your terminal:
sudo apt install apache2
After the installation is complete, start the Apache service by running the following command:
sudo systemctl start apache2
To ensure that Apache starts automatically upon system reboot, run the following command:
sudo systemctl enable apache2
DAViCal is written in PHP, so you need to install PHP and several PHP modules to run it properly. Install PHP and the required modules by running the following command:
sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-cli php-xml php-mysql php-mbstring
After the installation is complete, restart the Apache service by running the following command:
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Now that we have installed Apache and PHP with the necessary modules, it's time to install DAViCal. Follow the steps below to download and install DAViCal:
wget https://gitlab.com/davical-project/davical/-/archive/1.1.x/davical-1.1.x.tar.gz
tar -zxvf davical-1.1.x.tar.gz
sudo mv davical-1.1.x /var/www/html/davical
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/davical
After the installation is complete, we need to configure DAViCal. Start by creating a new database for DAViCal by running the following command:
sudo mysql -u root -p
Enter your MySQL root password, then create a new database:
create database davical;
Create a new user and grant privileges to the database that you created:
create user 'davical'@'localhost' identified by 'password';
grant all privileges on davical.* to 'davical'@'localhost';
Exit from MySQL by typing:
exit;
Now, edit the configuration file for DAViCal by running the following command:
sudo nano /var/www/html/davical/config.php
Update the configuration parameters as follows:
// Database Configuration
$config_c['database']['type'] = "mysqli";
$config_c['database']['hostspec'] = "localhost";
$config_c['database']['username'] = "davical";
$config_c['database']['password'] = "password";
$config_c['database']['name'] = "davical";
$config_c['database']['phptype'] = "mysqli";
Save and close the file by pressing Ctrl + X, then Y, and then Enter.
Now, we will create a new virtual host to access DAViCal. To do this, we need to create a new configuration file in the Apache web server. Run the following command to create a new file:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/davical.conf
Copy and paste the following lines into the file:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName your-domain.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/davical
<Directory /var/www/html/davical>
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/davical_error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/davical_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Update ServerName parameter to your server's domain name or IP address. Save and close the file.
Now, disable the default Apache virtual host and enable the new one:
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo a2ensite davical.conf
Restart the Apache web server to apply the changes:
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Now, DAViCal is installed, configured, and running on your server. You can now access it using a web browser by typing the following URL:
http://your-domain.com/
You should see the DAViCal login page. Use the default username admin and password 1234 to log in, and then change the password to a more secure one.
Congratulations, you have successfully installed DAViCal on Elementary OS latest. You can now synchronize your contacts and events across different devices.
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